Texas school districts, including Cy-Fair ISD, will have the opportunity to apply for a portion of a $130 million high-quality pre-K improvement grant program that was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott for the 2015-17 biennium.“Districts can apply to enhance existing programs they may have,” said Linda Macias, CFISD associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction and accountability. “It’s a good step toward [full-day pre-K], but it will be provided in the form of a grant.”
To qualify for the funding, districts must meet several criteria: employ qualified, certified teachers; follow pre-K guidelines set by the state; and have an evaluation piece that can track the program’s success.
Although CFISD and other organizations across Texas supported the implementation of full-day pre-K during the legislative session, HB 4 does not offer formula-generated funding for a full day of high-quality pre-K for all eligible students.
“With Texas having more than 60 percent of our kids classified as economically disadvantaged, we felt like a full day of high-quality pre-K would be the best investment our state could make for all kids,” said David Anthony, CEO of nonprofit education advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas. “There has been an 81 percent increase in the number of low-income students over the past 20 years.”
Though HB 4 was a positive step in the right direction this session, Anthony said there is much more the Legislature must do in the future to ensure pre-K is funded at a higher level.
“If [high-quality pre-K] is causing kids to be kindergarten-ready, reading-ready and vocabulary-ready, you’ll have a lot more graduates making good decisions,” he said.
To fund a full day of pre-K statewide, legislators would need to allocate an additional $1.5 billion for the 2015-17 biennium, Anthony said.
A handful of Texas school districts in urban areas, such as Houston and Dallas ISDs, have allocated local funding over the past few years to support full-day pre-K classes, he said. However, CFISD does not have the funding to establish full-day programs districtwide, Macias said.
“It’s not funding for just materials and teachers, but it’s about space for us,” she said. “We’re still a growing district, we open new schools and have portables, so we would need money for facilities to expand.”
Students can attend pre-K in Texas if they do not speak or understand English, qualify for free or reduced lunch or have a parent or guardian who is an active or reserve member of the armed forces. The program is beneficial for students because it allows them to develop academic and social skills, Macias said.
“It provides them the opportunity to enter kindergarten at the same reading and social level as other children who didn’t qualify for this program,” she said.
Anthony said while there has been some progress on the issue, the conversation is not over.
“If you are looking back at the state of Texas in 15 or 20 years, I would hate to look back and say, ‘If we had made pre-K a priority, we would be in a much better position than we are in right now,’” he said. “When you look at [state demographer] Steve Murdoch’s data, he will tell you by 2050, if we don’t change what’s happening right now in Texas, adults will have a decrease in their per capita income due to lesser education, low-paying jobs.”
CFISD has piloted a full-day pre-K program at Francone Elementary School, but would need double the space to expand the program.
“This district and our board certainly supports a full-day pre-K program,” Macias said. “Anytime we can better equip students with preliteracy abilities so they can be successful, we’ll support that. We will continue to advocate for funding that will be equitable for our kids.”
